The U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007, a committee of economists at the private National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday. The economy reached a peak in December and has been declining since, according to the business cycle dating committee of the NBER.
While this sounds about right, many of us have been saying we’ve been in a recession for many months now. Glad the NBER finally made it official and here’s hoping we don’t have to wait very long for the recovery. Oh wait – we have to wait another 50 days to have a real President. Ahem!
6 comments:
The NBER is now in agreement with what I heard Allen Sinai say at the Galbraith conference several weeks ago in New York. He is predicting the recession will last through all of 2009.
And what Warren Buffet has said....and economists at Harvard....and most Americans watching the news....and of course, what the Bush administration has been denying for months. As usual, he has his finger on the pulse doesn't he?
According to Keynes, the root cause of an economic downturns is an insufficient aggregate demand. When the total demand for goods and services declines, businesses throughout the economy see their sales fall off. Lower sales induce firms to cut back production and to lay off workers. Rising unemployment and declining profits further depress demand, leading to a feedback loop with a very unhappy ending.
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
The recession isn't always a bad thing! Most people don't realize how much money there is out there. During economic times like this, there is more money to be had than ever. Because of the bailouts and economy, lenders are bending over backwards to bail you out too. Believe it or not, there is people getting tons of cheap money nowdays to start businesses, buy homes, pay off debt, and more. Profit from Recession
Recall the late Gene McCarthy's statement that "you don't have to be a shoemaker to know the shoe hurts" during the 1968 Presidential campaign. (He was challenged on what he would do regarding Vietnam and its problems in coming up with this statement.) We the people other than economists have been feeling the pinch for a long time. Formally labelling this pinch doesn't remove the pain. George W's guns, butter and tax breaks early on in his first term did not help. We the people were not called upon to make sacrifices. Now we the people are paying the price. We the people did not insist upon transparency and accountability on the part of our elected officials. Let's hope that with President Elect Obama we the people will get a fair shake.
50 days until we get a president who can, with luck, *start* the *process* of fixing things. Assuming no GOP Senate fillibusters, and rapid confirmation of most appointees, the actual fixing of stuff can start in, say, late summer/early fall 2009. If it takes a year or two to have an effect...
-Barry
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